Tom Dwan Chasing Gold
Born in Edison, New Jersey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan is one of the youngest, brightest and biggest stars in the poker world. Dwan began playing poker online in $6 sit-n-gos after a deposit of just $50. After crushing those, he moved over to cash games where he grinded his way up the ranks. Dwan admits to having run extremely well and shooting up in limits within a few months. Before everyone knew it, “durrrr” was a staple in the biggest nosebleed limits possible.
Dwan was unable to play poker in the U.S. due to age restrictions and forced to play either online or outside of the States. In 2005 when he was just 19 years old, Dwan cashed in the Main Event on an EPT. His next tournament splash wouldn’t be until he was 21 at the World Poker Finals held at Foxwoods in Connecticut. At that event, Dwan placed fourth for nearly $325,000. That was in 2007.
In 2008, he placed second in an event at the Aussie Millions Championship for over $100,000 and then went heads up with Mike Sowers in a prelim event of the Borgata Winter Poker Open. Dwan finished second for over $225,000 there.
His first year of the WSOP came in 2008, but it was a solid first appearance. He made the final table of the $10,000 Mixed Championship. The final table included Sam Farha, Michael DeMichele, Eli Elezra and James “Mig.com” Mackey. Dwan went on to finish eighth. He also finished eighth in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw with Rebuys event, just missing the final table by one person.
Also in 2008, Dwan placed ninth in the Five-Star World Poker Classic for $184,670. The same year he competed in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and defeated Phil Hellmuth after cracking his aces with pocket tens.
Dwan’s also been known to take on some of the toughest competition in poker in Bobby’s Room in Las Vegas. At first, his style seemed crazy and many believed he was just lucky. In time though, Dwan has garnered respect from other top professionals of the game for being one of the greatest minds in poker. To the young online kids, Dwan is a god. In high-stakes televised action, Dwan regularly participates in High Stakes Poker.
This year at the WSOP, Dwan placed second behind Simon Watt in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. The event drew a ton of attention because if Dwan won, he was set to collect millions of dollars from bracelet bets. Unfortunately, he fell in second place. He had three other cashes this year in Vegas as well.
Dwan only has one WSOP Europe cash in the £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event last year. He took 14th in that event for £12,713. Much like another poker juggernaut he regularly plays with in high-stakes games Phil Ivey, Dwan can't seem to get those top results he's after at the WSOP Europe. This year he has a ton riding on bracelet bets, but so far, nothing has come for Dwan.
He just recently doubled up to 11,000 and that may just be the momentum he's been looking for to start really building a stack here on Day 1b. Right now, Dwan sits with 18,625 in chips after having a pretty up-and-down start to his day, so that double may have been the spark that ignited the fire.